'Charge Me Or I'll Sue' - Caine

[Jim Finnel]

It's been more than five weeks since Langley RCMP raided Randy Caine's medical marijuana dispensary, and no charges have been laid.

"I find that disturbing," said Caine, a pro-marijuana activist who has fought many legal battles to decriminalize pot.

"They've had plenty of time."

On Tuesday ( Aug. 23 ), Caine issued a challenge to the Crown prosecutor's office, which decides whether charges will be laid based on the police report of the investigation that led to the July 19 raid.

"Either lay charges against me or take steps to re-open the dispensary," Caine told The Times.

"It needs to be one or the other."

Charges were quickly laid against other recently-raided B.C. medical marijuana dispensaries, Caine added.

"I am so ready for this to go to court," Caine said.

Caine said the more than 200 clients of his dispensary have been left without a supplier because of the raid and plans for an alternate distribution of medical marijuana have still not materialized.

"There are are a lot of people hurting," Caine said.

"There is an element of urgency to this."

Caine said a civil lawsuit against the police is a possibility if no criminal charges are laid.

"I feel the dispensary would be entitled to recompense."

Caine said the dispensary was a response to a lack of legitimate sources of marijuana for Langley medicinal users.

He maintains that it reduced crime by taking marijuana distribution to legitimate patients away from the criminal element, something the police should appreciate.

"What I would hope is they've re-thought their position and the dispensary could re-open."

Langley RCMP said they raided Caine's dispensary in response to "numerous ongoing complaints from the community and area residents."

One of the complaints came from Langley City Councillor Rudy Storteboom, who owns an office in the same building as the dispensary, and went to Mayor Peter Fassbender after there was a break-in at Caine's premises which are next door to the councillor's space. That office is leased to a hairdresser.

Both men have confirmed there was a discussion in which the councillor expressed concern about the dispensary, and Fassbender advised Storteboom to take it up with the building strata council.

In a letter to The Times, Langley RCMP Supt. Derek Cooke said, based on the dispensary website, Caine was not distributing pot according to federal Health Canada regulations.

Among other things, Cooke said, those regulations limit the use of medical marijuana to specific medical conditions, require the doctors who approve medical marijuana treatment to have specific expertise in that area, put the onus on the doctor to prove that other forms of treatment have been tried and require clients to be informed of the medical risks of using marijuana.

"Perhaps most concerning from a law enforcement and community safety perspective, there was no process in place for dispensary customers to have been screened for relevant criminal history or activity," Cooke wrote.

Cooke added there are legal alternatives to a medical dispensary for "legitimately licensed individuals to obtain marijuana." He said patients can buy it from Health Canada or grow their own.

NewsHawk: Jim Behr: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Langley Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Langley Times
Contact: newsroom@langleytimes.com
Website: Langley Times - Langley Times
Details: MapInc
Author: Dan Ferguson

 

[Irish]

"Cooke added there are legal alternatives to a medical dispensary for "legitimately licensed individuals to obtain marijuana." He said patients can buy it from Health Canada or grow their own. "

How transparent. The Canadian Government's Big Pharma wants a monopoly on marijuana growing/dispensing. What a crock.....

 

[Magic beans]

They must have been lackingcommon sense, those police, for raiding a medical dispensary. Duh

 

[Purple Goose]

"Cooke added there are legal alternatives to a medical dispensary for "legitimately licensed individuals to obtain marijuana." He said patients can buy it from Health Canada or grow their own. "

How transparent. The Canadian Government's Big Pharma wants a monopoly on marijuana growing/dispensing. What a crock.....

Well actually I am very versed in current canadian mmj policy and plans and they are currently trying to get out of there obligation to supply cannabis as well as take away our rights to grow our own in lieu of some new system where they plan to licence some unkown amount of growers using some unkown plan to determine if the unkown growers meet the requirements which have not been establish , and are able to pass some unkown number of police and rcmp checks to determine if they will be allowed to grow or not, from there they will have to set up large indoor growing facilities across canada so that every community has reasonable access to a local dispensary or a few local dispensaries where they will use some unkown form of identification that somehow they feel Dr's will now be willing to sign even though they wouldnt before under our original program because of lack of training an knowledge and in the end they have untill march to come up with a program that they can make a judge beleieve will give patients better access to marijuana or it will become legal in ontario to begin with for everyone. I personally think they will throw to gether a hashed up system that will fail even worse but will manage to get it thru and then in about 5 years when its failed completely canada will just legalize cannabis completely.

 

[Captain Kronic]

It's going to be the same "crock" everywhere, not just Canada! It's all about the $... I have long said so!

Think about it... do you know of any Gov agency who is going to let the lil guy make his way w/more than a hand to mouth existence... certainly not in this day and age!

There are too many ways that Governments can make huge amounts of cash off of MMJ.

They are not going to let mom and pop handle their own grows/dispensaries... that would boost our local economies and provide quality meds in a controlled manor to peeps that really need it!
They will give it to a select few to the cost of oversight and control is easier and profits for the coffers are maximized.
Even though common sense dictates to me that there does need to be some sort of oversight/regs that handle quality control guidelines for MMJ issued to persons (if the meds are being billed as for MMJ patients). I can't think of any instance where any Gov has let go of the chance to fill the special interest coffers of the white house/congress. In this case meaning big pharma.

I'll never stop providing my own meds if I can at all help it (maybe for a few others too... LOL) I stopped trusting Government long ago and they have done nothing but confirm my disdain and contempt for them!
I don't see where the MMJ battle will be any different... they have already shown us that much!